His grandmother suckled his wife when she was a baby Fatwa No: 92362
- Fatwa Date:20-8-2006
Respected All Assalam-o-Alaikum God bless you all as you are making great efforts to bring real Islam in people lives. I have a question to ask you. I did marriage with my cousin 2 ½ years ago. My grand mother adopted my wife when her age was 6 or 8 months due to separation between her parents. Now somebody told us that my grand mother breastfed her at that time. We asked grand mother and she told that the baby was fully dependent on cow milk given by bottle (feeder) and after few months, the baby (my wife) started to eat others foods also. My grand mother has not own milk at that time as she was widow for last 7 years and her last child was of 12 years of age. For baby’s satisfaction, grandmother used to put her breast in baby mouth and after few months, milk started to come in very little quantity (in the form of drops). This continued for next one year but breast milk never filled her stomach even for a single time due to very little quantity (in the form of drops). I have heard that it is necessary to fill baby stomach five times by breastfeeding to become a mahram. Also some scholars say that the milk should be as a result of pregnancy or birth of a legitimate child. Please help me in my problem.
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
The scholars differed in opinion with regard to the number of times of suckling which renders the child a Mahram (i.e. a spouse or a person whom one is permanently prohibited from marrying due to suckling, marital, or blood relations). Some of them are of the view that the number of sucklings by which a person becomes a Mahram are 5 times, suckling one's fill, as detailed in Fatwa 91172.
However, suckling one's fill does not mean that the infant should have suckled his fill at every time he suckled, but what is meant is just 5 times suckling. The suckling is determined by people's customs, as there is no defined limit to it neither in Islamic legislations nor in the Arabic language. Since this is the case, suckling should be determined by people's customs. What the jurists considered as a suckling according to people's customs, is when the infant sucks the nipple of the woman and then releases it (when he doesn't feel like sucking any more), but there is no consideration to the amount of milk suckled whether it much or little; as long as the infant swallowed some of it to his stomach. Ash-Shaafi'ee said: "…in such a case, there is no consideration to the amount of milk suckled whether it is much or little; if some of it reaches the infant's stomach, then it is considered as one suckling, but if the infant had suckled less than 5 times, then he does not become a Mahram."
Furthermore, it is not a condition for the milk to be due to a pregnancy. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 91200.
Hence, since the suckling which you mentioned in the question reached the stomach, even if it was just a few drops, then it makes one a Mahram if he suckled five times according to the conditions mentioned above.
Allaah Knows best.